Ability Editor

An XCOM 2: War of the Chosen mod that changes how abilities work purely from config. Costs, cooldowns, charges, effects, conditions and template fields of any ability (base game, DLC or another mod's) can be edited by adding +AbilityEdits entries to an .ini file - and the same entry can create a new ability, blank or as a copy of an existing one.

Letting a Ranger keep acting after Slash is just:

[AbilityEditor.X2DLCInfo_AbilityEditor]
+AbilityEdits=( \\
    Ability=SwordSlice, \\
    CostMode=eACEM_Merge, \\
    Costs=( \\
        ( \\
            Class="X2AbilityCost_ActionPoints", \\
            Mode=eACEM_Merge, \\
            SetNumPoints=true, \\
            NumPoints=1, \\
            SetConsumeAllPoints=true, \\
            ConsumeAllPoints=false \\
        ) \\
    ) \\
)

Build it without hand-writing the .ini

The config builder turns the reference below into a form: pick an ability, pick a class, tick the fields you want. It writes the entry for you and flags the mistakes the mod itself never reports - a missing Set guard, or a Mode left at its default where that quietly deletes the ability's existing costs.

Start here

• Config builder - fill in a form, get a valid entry.
• Install - get the mod running and find your config file.
• Config syntax - how an entry is put together, and the Set guard rule that trips up everyone once.
• Edit modes - what the Mode fields do, and why leaving one out can wipe an ability's costs.
• Reference - every field, for every class, across the nine families.

What you can edit

Nine families of ability internals, plus the template's own fields:

Family	Config key	What it controls
Costs	Costs	Action points, ammo, charges, focus, consumed items
Cooldown	Cooldown	Turn cooldowns, per-player-type and shared cooldowns
Charges	Charges	Initial charges and bonus charges from other abilities
Effects	Effects	What the ability actually does - damage, stats, stuns, armor
Conditions	(seven slots)	Who and when the ability can affect
ToHitCalc	ToHitCalc	Aim, crit, guaranteed hits, stat rolls
TargetStyle	TargetStyle	How the primary target is picked
MultiTargetStyle	MultiTargetStyle	Area shapes - radius, cone, line, cylinder
Triggers	Triggers	What causes the ability to fire

For tool authors

The whole config API is published as machine-readable schema.json -

Troubleshooting

The mod does not validate your config. A misspelled field name is silently ignored by the game's .ini parser with no log line at all, and several Mode fields default to replace. If something isn't working, Troubleshooting covers the failure modes in the order they actually occur.